Knitting and Crocheting and sometimes Spinning Blog

Author: grandmakitty

Oh summer knitting – when the thermometer reads 80 something degrees and you’re sitting there in the sunshine with a bag of yarn and some needles, feeling not so motivated to finish that blanket.

I have been so unmotivated to pick up my needles, yet I keep them in my backpack everywhere I go just in case creativity strikes. Yet so far, the only thing I have really been able to finish this summer is this one granny square with the help of Grandma when she visited me:

Kitty’s Granny Square

Meanwhile, Grandma is taking on the challenge of knitting 99 of these squares. Good luck Grandma!

Helena has once again, been putting me and Grandma to shame with how much knitting she has been doing. She already has finished this beautiful brown striped blanket she started at the end of the semester, along with a two amazing looking scarves and starting on another new project! I envy the time she has to knit, yet at the same time, my wrist needs a break. Only 21 and already I have to worry about getting carpal tunnel from typing and knitting too much.

Helena’s blanket

Helena’s scarf

A scarf work in progress

Almost ready to bind off

Meanwhile, Grandma and I spent a weekend at the shore celebrating our summer breaks!

Grandma Kitty adventures are always the best! Of course, they’re better when our other friends come and join too.

Oh the summer knitting – yet the summer is going by so fast! Happy stitching from Grandma and Kitty here!

I apologize for not posting on here in over a week. I could have sworn that once finals were over with, I would have more free time on my hands. Maybe I do, but it sure doesn’t seem like it. First I had band stuff at school, so I was busy for a week with that, and then this past week I started my internship. Lately, it just seems like there isn’t enough time in the day. Which means “Welcome to Summer!”

My spinning days have come to a halt as of right now and I appreciate those who commented on gave me ideas after posting my last post, Knitting Block. However, I do have three WIPs right now that I decided to share with all of you.

The Loom

Baby Blanket work in progress

I started this project all the way back in December of this past year (so December 2015). It’s a slow process, mostly because I feel like I can knit on a pair of straight needles faster than on a loom. But I do have to say that I absolutely love the way this is coming out. I am using yarn that I bought over a year ago at a yarn festival and I knew when I got it that I was going to make a blanket with it. Now here I am! Slowly but surely.

The Needles

So I started this project on Wednesday and as you can see I haven’t gotten far at all. I’m actually not even sure what this is going to turn out to be. Whether it will be a scarf or a hat. I much would rather knit for the sake of knitting rather than reading a pattern. Especially when I’m at my brother’s lacrosse games and I just need something to do with my hands. It also gave me yet another chance to practice the seed stitch. I will master it! Stay tuned to see what this project ends up being.

The Hook

Scrap Blanket WIP

This blanket is still a work in progress – but it will get there! It’s all single crochet though so it’s just taking a while. It is however, using up my scrap yarn which is a good thing =) Onto the 7th color of scrap yarn!!

That’s all of my knitting and crocheting that I have been doing. Most of it coming along slow, but slow and steady still wins the race.

I apologize for how quiet it has been on here lately. I thought that once finals ended I’d be able to post something much more interesting than this on here. But sadly, I am posting this. A very frustrating post of how I just don’t know what to knit next. I have all of this yarn! A collection of multi-colored yarn (and by the way, I’m not a fan of multicolored yarn. I much prefer it solid color) with scraps yarn of solid yarn that are barely enough to add to my scrap yarn blanket WIP.

I have started so many projects this week while I’m still here at school for band stuff, that I have had enough time to rip them all out pretty much and then start each over again and again. Like a seed stitch scarf. (My seed stitch is not nearly as good as Helena’s) Or a crochet bracelet. Or a crochet flower that I just gave up on the idea entirely on that. So I sit here staring at my bag of yarn and crochet hooks and knitting needles saying, “Ughh! I have nothing to do!!” I need some inspiration is an understatement. If you have any ideas, please do leave a comment.

A special treat for you stitchers today! We’re showing off Helena’s very brightly, unique, and wonderful collection of the few things she has knitted. She calls this one her Funky Collection

Before I get into explaining her collection of these 3 items you see above, I’d like to say how proud I am of Helena and I think Grandma would agree. Helena just learned to knit this past year in August and hasn’t stopped knitting since! She has created several blankets/throws, scarves, and a number of hats. Helena is probably one of the more patient knitters I know who can easily crank out a blanket in 2 days without getting bored or tired of the project – as long as she has something to do with her hands she is happy. That being said, she’s not a fan of shorter projects like hats. But with Grandma helping her get started and both of us encouraging her success and her own motivation and desire to continue to learn new stitches and patterns, Helena is a wonderful knitter and I am dedicating this blog post to her.

The Funky Collection consists of a twin-sized blanket, a multi-colored hat, and a very interesting scarf.

It began with a blanket. Helena is known to knit and knit until she has barely any yarn left to work with. When she put the bright green fringes on the ends, she announced to me that this was going to be the first item in her Funky Collection. Even though I liked it without the red stripes before (mostly because it kept me warm while watching movies) she decided to add the red stripes onto the one side. It still is awesome and very warm and she is very proud of it. Although, it took her longer than she anticipated which made her a little annoyed at the project (mostly the stripes).

Helena’s Funky Blanket

Next up, Helena created this very unique looking scarf. She bought this weird looking white yarn that had a German tag on it and had no idea what to do with it. She ripped out a few projects before finally figuring out what to do with it. The joke was that we called this yarn the tampon yarn because of what it looked like. But in the end, the scarf came out fairly well and Helena was so happy to be done with that yarn.

Kitty modeling Helena’s Funky Scarf

Lastly, Helena finished off her collection by quickly (and when I say quickly I mean she probably finished this also in a matter of hours) this cool multi-colored hat. Keeping up with the incredibly bright color scheme, she knitted a hat using purple, lime green, and a bright sunshine yellow. And it wouldn’t be a hat Helena made if it didn’t have a pom-pom on top. Personally, those types of hats remind me of hats that our friend Murray wears every single day in the winter. Hmm… that reminds me, Grandma we still need to make him a new hat to replace that one! Speaking of Grandma, she has volunteered to model off this adorable hat – although it is a little too bright for her.